This invention relates to methods of and apparatus for sanding wood and other surfaces, and more particularly, to hand-held, motor power, electric or pneumatic sanding machines having a rotating roller.
Conventional rotary disk sanders and orbital sanders are used by millworkers, refinishers, cabinet makers, etc. to sand a smooth surface on pieces of wood. Typically, the rotary or orbital wood sanders with the rotating sanding material makes slight swirl marks or scratches that cut across the wood grain, and then these swirl marks must be removed by a hand-sanding and finishing of the wood surface with the grain. The surface area of these hand-held disks is usually small. One factor in limiting the effectiveness of the sanding disk is that outer edges move at higher speeds and sometimes make deep scratches, particularly, across the grain of the wood.
A number of prior art sanding devices have been disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,793,782; 1,325,937; 3,790,980; 4,692,958; 4,380,092; 4,177,611; 4,694,616; and 5,007,208 using various motors and rotatable rollers or the like which have not been able, for one reason or another, to provide the market with a commercially available, hand-held, motor-driven tool, These roller sanders have been unable to replace conventional belt sanders or the orbital or rotary disk sanders that have most of the wood finishing market between themselves. There is on the market a wheeled sander that has a rotating sanding roller that is wheeled linearly along the wood grain. The wheels are a limiting factor where one can use this machine. Another sander on the market is called a stroke sander and has a sanding surface about six (6) inches wide and is used with a table eight (8) to ten (10) feet in length. Typically, this stroke sander is expensive, e.g., about $3,000, relatively the cost of a hand tool sander. Another sander requiring a large area is called a wide belt sander that has a belt stretched between a pair of drums. A drive drum rotates the belt, and a platen is positioned between the upper and lower runs of the endless sanding belt and pushes down on the inner surface of the lower belt run to force the outer sanding surface against the wood to sand the same. Typically, these wide, belt sanders have tables two (2) feet to five (5) feet in width and cost, for the smallest size, about $6,000. Manifestly, these large table sanders cannot be turned on edge to sand the faces or edges of a piece of wood, furniture or the like as can hand-held sanders. Belts on both the wide belt and stroke sander are relatively expensive.
Thus, there is a need for an improved, hand-held, inexpensive sanding tool having a rotatable roller that can be used for in-line sanding and that permits sanding without digging into the wood or other surfaces or without leaving swirl marks that are made by the commonly used, hand-held orbital or rotary sanders. Also, there is a need for a faster sanding method than is current provided with small, hand-held, rotary sanding equipment.